Stronger Than I Am
by Hellish Angel
Summary: Piper and Leo with Melinda & Melody in the future, will they ever get back together?


INote: The song belongs to LeAnn Womack off her cd "I Hope you Dance." Blah, blah blah, characters, yatta, yatta, yatta, not mine.  
  
____________________________________________________________  
  
"Dear Diary,  
  
If weren't for Melinda and Melody, I honestly don't think I could get out of bed in the mornings. If it weren't for the dates, I don't think I would be able to tell any of the days apart. I drop Melinda off at school, take Melody home, wash dishes, play with Melody, take her to the park, set her down for a nap, pick up Melinda, come home, help with homework, make dinner, and then have Phoebe baby sit while I go to the club. Nothing really has changed since he left, but it feels like everything has changed.  
  
Then sometimes he comes to visit, and I let him take care of the girls while I have some time to myself. Melody hardly seems to notice her daddy is gone, but Melinda notices. She asks me where he is sometimes. She knows that I feel sad, even though I never told her so, and I don't cry in front of her. I only cry in the shower where Phoebe or Melinda can't hear me. But Melinda still knows that her mom is sad. She has that 6th sense about people. Just like her father.  
  
xoxo,  
  
Piper" /I  
  
Piper sighed and put her diary under the mattress. She turned off her light and fell asleep.  
  
IThings around here haven't changed much, it's all pretty much the same stuff, day after day. The only thing that keeps me going seems to be our baby girl I'm trying to raise.I  
  
"Oh, crap. Have you seen my keys, Mel?" Piper asked, searching for her keys. She needed to drive Mel to school, and she couldn't find her car keys.  
  
"No, Mom. Do you suppose Oddy hid them?" Melinda asked, turning her green eyes to Piper's brown ones.  
  
"No. Don't be silly, Mel. Melody couldn't have taken them. She's barley walking on her own." Piper said, logically. She went to the living room to look.  
  
"Boo!" Melody smiled from her playpen as soon as she saw Piper. She jingled Piper's keys. At the sound of the jingle, Piper smiled and walked over. "How'd you get those, Oddy?"  
  
I  
  
She's my life, my morning angelI  
  
Once Piper got to Melinda's school, she was already late for homeroom.  
  
"Don't worry, Mom. The good thing is that now I won't have to do bellwork today or say the "Pleage of Alligence" to the Pole." Melinda told her, beaming.  
  
Piper had to smile. Melinda's flag in her homeroom had fallen off the pole, so as a joke, Melinda would make up a plege to the Pole.  
  
I Always seems to find the rainbow after the rain/I  
  
"Hey, Oddy? How would you like to see Daddy today?" Piper asked, looking in her rearview mirror towards Melody.  
  
"Daddy!" Melody said, in her little voice.  
  
"Daddy it is then." Piper told her.  
  
When they got home, Piper called to Leo.  
  
"Here you go. Bottles are in the fridge, Sippie cups are in the glasses cuboard, if you need me, just call my cell." Piper said, not wanting to be with Leo any more than she had to, but at the same time, wanting to be with him.  
  
"Piper?" Leo asked, as she was about to turn away.  
  
"Yes, Leo?" Piper asked, trying to keep her voice calm and detached.  
  
"Why am I watching her?"  
  
"Because your her father, and she hardly ever gets to see you." Piper rushed away, before her could do anything to get her back.  
  
  
  
As soon as Piper was in her car, she went to the beach. All she wanted to do was to relax and try to sort through all that had happened to her marriage, and try to figure out her true feelings towards Leo.  
  
While staring at the waves, Piper began to wonder what it was that tore her marriage apart. She knew she still loved Leo, and that she really didn't want a divorce. She began to think about what it was that made her kick him out in the first place.  
  
She tried to think back to that day. The day she kicked him out of the manor. She remembered that he had just come home from "work." And it must have been really late because it was dark out. He had tried not to wake her up, but he did. She knew that next she kicked him out, but she couldn't remember why.  
  
Glancing at her watch, Piper decided to go back to the manor to take care of Melody before Leo started looking for her because he would need to do his "job."  
  
Upon arriving at the manor, Piper found Leo and Melody sitting on the couch watching "Teletubbies."  
  
"Po?" Melody questioned, pointing at the green teletubie.  
  
"No, I think that's Dipsey." Leo corrected her.  
  
"Po!" Melody exclaimed when she saw the yellow teletubie.  
  
"No, not yet, Oddy. That's Laa-laa. Po is red. Where is the red teletubie?"  
  
Melody pointed at the house, indicating that Po was inside the teletubie's house.  
  
Leo stood up, and put Melody where he was sitting on the couch. "Piper, we need to talk." he said, turning to his wife.  
  
"Yes, well, I don't have time. I have to wash the dishes, pick up Mellie from school, go grocery shopping-" Piper started.  
  
"Dishes can wait, groceries can wait and Phoebe can pick up Melinda from school. We need to talk, Piper."  
  
"No, Leo. There is nothing to talk about. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put Oddy down for a nap." Piper told him coldly. While she had been talking, Leo had been looking in her eyes. She had tried to hide her true feelings from him, but she could never hide her true feelings in her eyes. What he had seen in them was hurt and a little regret.  
  
"Good-by, Daddy." Melody said, as Piper walked away with her.  
  
"You finally learned to say good-by, Oddy! What a big girl you're getting to be." Piper smiled at her.  
  
Leo sighed, and orbed out.  
  
I She finally learned to say good-bye/I  
  
Piper tossed and turned in her bed that night, thinking about why she kicked Leo out. He must have tried to apologize for waking her up. She figured.  
  
She must have somehow fallen asleep because the next thing she knew, it was morning. She was happy because last night had been Melody's first night that she hadn't woken up in.  
  
IShe's sleepin' through the night, She don't wake up cryin'/I  
  
Piper decided to work on trying to get Melody to walk on her own that day. Piper tried in the morning to get her to walk on her own with no success. Finally, Piper decided she would try again later.  
  
Leo orbed in that night, as Piper was tucking Melinda and Melody into bed.  
  
Leo waited in the kitchen for Piper.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She asked, going by the sink to wash dishes.  
  
"We need to talk, Piper. And soon." He said.  
  
Piper sighed.  
  
"You can't avoid me forever, Piper."  
  
"Who said I was avoiding you?" She asked, coldly, loading the dishwasher.  
  
She wanted him to go, but at the same time, she wanted him to stay.  
  
"Well, aren't you?!" Leo asked, annoyance in his voice.  
  
"Maybe." Piper muttered. She gasped when she realized she had just said that aloud.  
  
"What did you say?" He asked.  
  
"Uh...nothing."  
  
"Ok." Leo said, unconvinced. "But we still need to talk."  
  
"No, we don't." Piper said, closing the dishwasher and turning it on.  
  
"Ok then, I need to talk." Leo said, getting annoyed at how stubborn Piper was being.  
  
"What happens if I don't want to listen?" Piper asked, turning around.  
  
Leo decided to ignore her question.  
  
"Why did you kick me out, Piper?" He asked.  
  
Piper sighed and walked towards the sun room.  
  
"Why, Piper? I think I deserve to know." He said, following her.  
  
She sat down on the wicker couch and covered her face with her hands. There was a silence between them for a while.  
  
Piper tried to figure out what she wanted to say to him.  
  
"Yes, you do deserve to know, Leo. Unfortunatly, I don't know the answer." She said, finally. She removed her hands from her face, and looked him in the eye.  
  
He broke the contact first, looking towards the sky. "Now?" He questioned.  
  
"I've got to go. Take care of the girls for me. Bye." And with that he orbed out.  
  
Piper sighed.  
  
"So how'd things go with Leo?" Phoebe questioned, sitting down beside Piper on the couch.  
  
"Like you weren't listening." Piper said, smiling.  
  
"You know he loves you, right?" She asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And you know he loves the girls, right?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And you know that you love the girls, right?"  
  
"Yes. What are you getting at, Phoebe?"  
  
"I'll get there, and you know that you love him, right?"  
  
"No, I don't. I'm not sure anymore." Piper said.  
  
"Well than how do you feel towards Leo?" Phoebe asked. "Well, I don't know. I mean, I want him around, but then again, I don't." Piper said, covering her face with her hands again. Phoebe looked thoughtful for a minute. "Well, have you told him that?" She asked. "No, I haven't." Piper's reply was a little muffled, since her hands were still in front of her face. "Why not?" Piper let her hands fall away from her face, and she looked Phoebe in the eye. "Gee, Pheebs, maybe coz' I was the one that kicked him out? And now I can't remember why, and I even have forgotten what I'm holding a grudge against him for?" "What are you holding a grudge against him for?" "It was Melinda's birthday, the day I kicked him out. That's all that I know. That and that he got home when it was dark out and he tried not to wake me up, but he did and then I guess I kicked him out. I'm going to go take a shower." Piper got up from the couch and went upstairs in the direction of her bedroom. "Piper is gonna' kill me if she ever finds out what I'm going to do." Phoebe said, going to the kitchen as soon as she heard water running. She grabbed her coat, and a piece of paper and a pen. She wrote:  
  
I"Dear Piper, I went to P3, I'll be back soon. Love, Phoebe /I  
  
After putting the piece of paper on the fridge, she grabbed her car keys and drove off to P3.  
  
When she got to P3, Phoebe went into Piper's office and shut the door. "Leo! Leo!" She called. Within moments, he appeared before her. "Leo, sit." Phoebe pointed to Piper's chair by her desk. Leo looked at her questioningly, but did as her was told. "Ok, Leo. What happened the night that Piper kicked you out?" Phoebe questioned him when he sat down. "Well, it was Melinda's birthday, and I got called to 'work' that morning. I think I might have told her that I'd be home in time for Melinda's birthday party. I got home late that night, and I tried not to wake her up, but I did. And I guess I tried apologizing to her, but she kicked me out. Why?" "No reason. I was just wondering." Phoebe told him.  
  
"You never just wonder, Pheebs. Why did you want to know?" Leo asked. Phoebe laughed. "Well, Piper can't seem to remember why she kicked you out, so I thought you might. But don't tell her that I talked to you or that I told you, because then she'd kill me." Phoebe smiled.  
  
"Let's see here now." Piper said while searching for the right ingredient in the store. Melody was trying to get down. "Melody, would you please stop squirming long enough for me to find this ingredient?" Piper scolded her daughter. When Melody continued to squirm, Piper picked up out of the cart and held her. "Can you help mommy find the Chili Pepper?" Piper calmly asked her.  
  
When they got home after ingredient and grocery shopping, Piper was surprised when Leo answered the door. She almost dropped Melody along with the bag of groceries when she saw him.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She asked him.  
  
"Melinda's school called. She has a fever and they wanted either you, I or Phoebe to pick her up." "And you were here when the school called?" Piper questioned, going to the kitchen with the bags. "Something like that, yeah. I was waiting for you to get back so we could talk." He said following her, even as she was going back to the car to get the rest of the bags. He picked up Melody, and followed Piper back into the kitchen with Melody.  
  
"So, where's Melinda Then?" Piper asked whilst putting away the groceries. "She's upstairs sleeping. I just put her down, but she's the least of my worries at the moment, Piper, We need to talk." Leo said, putting Melody on the kitchen floor. Piper sighed. "Leo, we've been through this! I have nothing to say to you!" "But I think you do, Piper. I think-" Leo started looking at Piper concerned, before Piper interrupted him. "Oh, my God, Leo!!! She's walking on her own!!" Piper cried, pointing at Melody  
  
IAnd she's walking on her own, she don't need no one, holding onto her hand, and I hate to admit, she's stronger than I am/I 


End file.
